Why a Music Academy?

speaker-0: Faith Baptist Church in Taylor's presents This Week in the Word.

speaker-1: Welcome to This Week in the Word again at Faith Baptist. I'm so thankful today to be joined by Pastor Chris Endries and Pastor Tim Fisher. And the purpose of our podcast format is really to speak with you about things that we're passionate about as a ministry, things that are happening here at Faith Baptist Church. And one of the things that we are both passionate about and is happening currently at Faith Baptist is the launch of our music academy. Not very long ago, ⁓ we actually gave to our congregation copies of this book that Pastor Fisher wrote. Called Harmony at Home. You wrote this

speaker-2: Wrote it several years ago. This is actually a a a ⁓ smaller version of the larger book.

speaker-1: Right, right. And we and we wrote it in for music academy purposes. Right. And I just wanted to, as we begin this conversation, read a portion from the beginning chapters of that and kinda launch out into this. It says over the past generation, budget cuts have forced public schools to limit their non academic studies, especially in the areas of music. There are some fine exceptions in public education, but it's sad that the average teenager's musical education comes from the smartphone or streaming services that is the fad of the moment. An entire generation has been cheated out of proper music education. But perhaps the saddest commentary is that Christian music education is not much better. What do you mean by that?

speaker-2: Well, I of course I am a musician, so I am a little biased. But the interesting thing is we train young people and w they take driver's education. They take typing classes. They take shop classes to learn basic mechanics. They take cooking classes. And all of those not knocking it, they're necessary skills. But I think when scripture tells us that we have an obligation to offer our music, to the Lord in Ephesians and Colossians, I think we need to be training. our folks to do that as well. And ⁓ I I just emburdened that as I as I mentioned, the public schools and even most of the Christian schools are not doing that. I think the church is the last bastion of music education that really exists in our culture.

speaker-1: Right. And and both Pastor Chris and I are relatively new to this congregation. You've been here at Faith as music pastor for

speaker-2: ⁓ I'm starting my twenty seventh twenty eighth year next month.

speaker-1: And Pastor Chris, when we both came we saw music as it is, but also you had the desire almost immediately as I did for what it could be. And just training. What why is it so important that we train young people for music?

speaker-0: When I came to Faith, ⁓ one of the first things I noticed was that there was just such a depth of gifting here in music. ⁓ there was a great love for music even from those that weren't musicians, a great appreciation for music, even from those that weren't musicians. And then I noticed just a a tremendous depth of ⁓ abilities, folks that had God given abilities, but folks that had spent many years investing in training. And so I immediately ⁓ asked the question, is there now a responsibility that we have? God has put together in this place such tremendous equities in the areas of music. If God gives us these equities, then isn't there an offsetting responsibility that we have? And so I think that was my view when I came in. I said there is so much here. What is our responsibility? Not just to this church, but to the kingdom of God and ⁓ across the country, what could we do to raise up musicians across the country?

speaker-1: That's kinda what you're speaking to in your book. You've got d you're acknowledging that there's a decrease of music education training. At the same time you're acknowledging but Christians should have a emphasis on music.

speaker-2: ⁓ yes, I I totally believe that. And and I don't want our our a church to get the wrong idea about my feelings concerning this. I'm not saying that Faith Baptist Church should have the best music program in the country. I have never set that as a goal. I think Faith Baptist Church should have the very best music program for the people that God gave us. It's like a family. We God has given us now he's blessed us with a a lot of good musicians and I ⁓ we're so thankful for folks that have come, folks that are here now, who have given of their abilities. These are people that God has brought our way. But there's a whole lot of people who want to be part of it who just need to be trained. And we want to make them part of the church as well. And and that's why we we structure our program the way.

speaker-1: we do. Which is a discipleship ministry. You've spoken even in our budget process about taking and using the resources God gives us wisely for training the next generation in music. W what is that? What what how how could we do that? How can we redeem the time in that way?

speaker-2: Exactly. Exactly.

speaker-0: Yeah, you know, there's two passages of scripture that ⁓ I was burdened with related to music. one, of course, is ⁓ Philippians chapter one, where ⁓ we're called to increase in our knowledge of God so that we could approve those things that are excellent. And really what that text is saying is it's not good enough for the church to say this is okay. It's a call. To say what is the very best that we could do with what God has given us? What's the very best we could do ⁓ in the new fiscal year? What's the best we could do over the next five years in equipping the saints for the work of the ministry? And then the second text ⁓ is the one that that you referenced. ⁓ and so this text that says, Redeem the time. So we have two biblical truths. One biblical truth is it's not good enough for the church just to say we're going to do what's okay, we're going to do what's good. ⁓ Christians are called to do what's best. Then the second ⁓ text is that we're called to take the time that we have, take the resources that we have, and redeem them, make the most out of them. And so when I overlay Those two biblical priorities and the deep equities we have in music and just even the physical resources we have here at faith, for me it put a great burden within me, ⁓ even beyond a burden. I felt a responsibility ⁓ to participate in in creating this music academy. Why? Because if we could take the resources that we have inside the budget that we have, inside the building that we have. and we can begin equipping little saints for the work of the ministry, and send them out into local churches, then I feel very strongly about that and I feel it's maybe a responsibility that we have.

speaker-1: It makes it ⁓ both scary though and exciting. 'Cause that's a we have deep resources to do it. We're thankful for Pastor Fisher and his foundation that he's laid. We have music that's going on right now, but if the Lord doesn't return here today And ⁓ there's another twenty years of ministry at Faith Baptist and we pray that he returns before we ever start, to be honest. But if if not, we wanna see those young people that are in our pews leading in music. And if education and music education is where it seemingly is, we gotta do something.

speaker-2: And and I I I will say, because I am coming up on the l later part of my life, that is my goal more than anything else here at Faith in the coming years is to see this established where I know when I'm off the scene that this education and discipleship will continue in the era of music. There's nothing that I could do I think that would be more important for this church than to help with that.

speaker-1: Right. And and it ⁓ actually this past Sunday, this is why this week in the Word it was particularly relevant for this week. ⁓ this past Sunday we had an open house and we were able to show people the space that is now being utilized. But it's interesting, Chris, that's a space we already had and we're now just taking that space and we're using it with a focused mission in mind.

speaker-0: We're redeeming.

speaker-1: We are redeeming it. And that was the biggest takeaway from many people I talked to is wait, we already had this room? Yeah, we already had this room. It's just now being utilized in this way.

speaker-2: Yeah, and I would encourage those in our church that I mean we were pretty specific in who we wanted to come to the open house and that was necessary and it was a great, great ⁓ thing that we all did. I'm so pleased we did that. But all of the members go up and take a look when you can. It's it's easy to get to. ⁓ it's labeled very clearly in the in the lobby there in the gym. Go right on in on the second floor and take a look and you might be surprised. It's it's really amazing. And and you folks paid for it. The church Donated the money to pay for it. That's what's exciting.

speaker-1: That's ⁓ that is exciting, that that the resources are already coming in to make this a reality. But what is our mission is not just music. That this is tied to a deeper tap root. Music is the outgrowth of the mission that we have as a church. And I know, Pastor Chris, that's something that you've been passionate about as well. In fact, you even had some notes here and I wanted to speak to on the mission of the church as it relates even to this music academy initiative with these young children.

speaker-0: Yeah, I think you know in America ⁓ we have an experience that's non-normative for the body of Christ. If you take the day ⁓ from the day of Pentecost till today, and we think of what the average Christian dealt with, ⁓ we are in a time and in a place that's unlike anything else in the history of the church. Meaning we have relative peace, ⁓ we have ⁓ tremendous prosperity, and we have ⁓ the opportunity to worship ⁓ without persecution. And so I think what some I've heard some missionaries eloquently say, more eloquently than I could, they say, Listen, ⁓ don't send your people to our mission field. We don't want Americans here. We have a pure church and the people that serve Christ here are doing it under threat of persecution, under threat of imprisonment, and we have a pure church that has the proper motives and priorities in the church. And so I think what we'd all have to say is that it's maybe just the human condition. When we're not under persecution and we're worshiping without without a lot of opposition, that we tend to start thinking about some things that may be a little bit more related to ⁓ Relaxation, hobbies, sports.

speaker-1: Getting together and having a good time.

speaker-0: Yeah, fell f you know, fellowship and celebrating our national holidays. And those are all good things. Those aren't necessarily bad things, but none of those things are the mission of the church. The mission of the church, the church that Jesus Christ died for, the church that he shed his blood for, the church that he bought and he owns. He bought that church ⁓ with the mission to evangelize the lost. And to equip and edify the saints. And so this uniquely, the Music Academy, is uniquely a ministry that is a going to take effort. It's amazingly not requiring many more financial resources. People have donated the Klavinovas. we've tightened our belt financially at the ministry here so that the church could pay for the director's salary. And so with without raising our budget. ⁓ and so we I feel like in terms of the the mission of the local church, if we look at our sacred scriptures, Ephesians four, ⁓ Colossians one, ⁓ Second Timothy three, Second Timothy two, Romans fourteen, if we look at what is the clear mission of the church, it is to evangelize the lost, is to equip and edify the saints. And I think this ministry is a bullseye with the ministry of the local church. It is taking young children ⁓ and teaching them from an early age how to ⁓ worship, how to serve in the church, ⁓ in the area of music. But the thing is this isn't just music training. ⁓ Lisha, the director of our music academy, she told me this ⁓ she ⁓ told me at one point she said, you know, my greatest ministry in teaching children has always been to the parents. Yeah. In discipling the parents. And ⁓ so this is a discipling ministry and they're not just being taught music they're but they're gonna learn of Jesus Christ and learn of his word ⁓ why they're learning music.

speaker-1: That's a perfect segue to another section that I intended to read from your book. ⁓ again, this book is called Harmony at Home. It's a book you wrote before and we kinda capsulized it a little bit more in capsule form for the purposes of a music education and ⁓ music academy. And you said, c kind of dovetailing with what Pastor Chris just added, music education must begin in the home. We could consume many pages quoting studies about the importance of music education in general and its a profound effect on our children, but the stronger appeal for music education is biblical rather than educational, spiritual than cultural. Who wouldn't agree that more and better music education would be profitable in public schools? Most Christians would agree that a better program in Christian schools and churches would be advantageous, but few see it as an obligation in the home. Parents often speak of their lack of knowledge and talent for the task. I regret the schools can't, but don't ask me to do it. I'm not qualified. Right. And one of the reasons we have this music education, it's ⁓ this music academy is because of our principled belief that our ministry for discipleship is to partner with parents. Right. And that's what this is.

speaker-2: And again, no slight to our parents, but the vast majority of the parents who I have gotten to know and have spoken with tell me we want help in this area. We're not equipped to train our children in some basic music skills. We're glad to help, we're glad to learn, we're glad to help finance, but but we need some help with this. And th that is one big reason why we're doing things this way. ⁓ to try to partner with the parents in teaching them. I may be wrong, but I believe if if I understood Alicia right when a conversation that I had with her, one of her master's thesis, she's got more than one master's degree, but her master's thesis for one degree was written the the the prospect or the theme of the thesis was how to use music to lead children to Jesus Christ. And she wasn't really talking necessarily about evangelism. She was talking about how can we use music to make children more Christ-like. And that's why I'm so excited about her coming. We not only have a musically qualified, gifted, and you can read her resume, very appropriate teacher, but we have someone who has a philosophy and a biblical knowledge to accomplish that very thing. That just excites me a great deal.

speaker-1: I I love the foundation that I hope our people are har starting to rehear. And y you know, so I've got Pastor Chris is saying, Here's the mission of the church. You know, just a few weeks ago we recorded a podcast here with ⁓ Pastor Mark talking about the importance of family first. Last week we talked with Rand Hummel about just holding on to what really matters and not drifting. And ⁓ now here we are talking about a music academy. This is off the foundation of our understanding that we need to continue to pursue Christ in all that we do. And we're thankful for what's happening in music now. But we could be calling a church planter right now and they'd be out and ask, Well, what do you need as you're establishing your church? And a lot of them would say, Man, if God would give us someone that could help us in our music. Absolutely. If all we've been praying that God would send us that way. And some of the graduates of our s of our academy, if God doesn't return, Jesus doesn't return before they they get into adulthood, we're praying That that would be them, that they would they would be the future. ⁓ perhaps here, perhaps at another ministry, wherever God places them. And that's what makes it really exciting. At least at my end, that makes it really exciting to think about.

speaker-0: You know, one thing we haven't touched on yet that was a another burden that ⁓ that we shared as pastors, and I think I'd start by saying this. We want to thank our parents, ⁓ for the the parents that have raised children that are maybe already in junior high or high school or even college, and they spent fifteen years of their life Sometimes working two jobs and and driving all over town to get lessons and spending a lot of money on gas, a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of wear and tear on vehicles to get their children the training that they needed and and and we want to applaud that. We want to applaud that and thank our parents for doing that and and and and we want to say that we thank God for giving them the ⁓ ability to do that. Yeah. But ⁓ I came from a family with six kids.

speaker-2: Amen.

speaker-0: and ⁓ my mom raised six kids alone and there was no way she always had a job, many times two jobs. There was no way, many times we didn't good part of my childhood we didn't have a car. So there would have been no way for my mom to to do that for us despite the fact she would have loved to. And so a part of the music academy is this one. To our parents that are coming up and have children If we could provide something that would be a blessing to your family, so you would have to do less driving and less wear and tear in your vehicle, or you could bring them to one place. We want to do that and be a blessing to our parents. And then secondly, for the parent for the parents, in at faith, it might be the minority, but for the parents or the children that would have fallen in my category, our greatest joy would be to have. This opportunity to come to the music academy to children that would otherwise would not have the opportunity. And for parents that otherwise couldn't provide those resources. So that is a very specific goal that we have is to make sure that this music academy is looking for and available to those that otherwise wouldn't have the ability to get their children this kind of training.

speaker-2: Yeah. I my daughter, I I think most folks know we have one child, a daughter, she is out ⁓ married a pastor, out living out west, and she grew up wanting to be involved with graphic arts, graphic design, and she was pretty talented in that area. And we spent a lot of time out together, Christine and I talking about what she was going to do and she wanted to marry an evangelist or a preacher. She had that in her mind and I said, Dear, if you're gonna marry a preacher There are two things that you can do to help you. To help her. ⁓ excuse me, to help him. I get this right. There are two things you can do to help your husband in the ministry. Number one, you can learn how to teach. Number two, you can learn how to play the piano. Because your your husband is gonna need that. And so we discussed it and over the years I'll never forget the day she came up and said, Dad, excuse me for the emotion. She said, Dad, I think I need to major in music education because my husband's gonna need these skills. And here my daughter my daughter is now a mother of four. She's out west in a smaller church, and guess what she's doing? She's teaching and she's playing the piano for the church. And I couldn't be more proud of her. And it was worth every penny, every listening to every rotten ⁓

speaker-0: And that one.

speaker-2: practice session she had in her home. But it was part of disciplining her life. And and that's it's not just gaining a knowledge of how to play the piano. W what parents, what your children is going are going to learn is how to discipline their time, how to discipline their resources, how to discipline their very lives, because you can't do some extra things and keep playing video games or keep going out and doing these other things or watching TV. You've got to be disciplined in your life. Parents, isn't that what we want from our kids? I I think I just think it's it it just goes together so well.

speaker-1: It's an investment in so many it touches in so many different areas. What one of the ⁓ unique things, I have an article that I've been sitting on in front of me that I found even today, and as I we before we began the podcast I mentioned his name and this guy perked up real quick. I hadn't thought about him very much. Lowell Mason. You've thought about him more.

speaker-2: I did my graduate paper on Low Motion ⁓ Low Mason. It was supposed to be twenty five pages. It turned out to be a hundred and fifty. Well

speaker-1: I didn't even know about Lowell Mason until I read the article. But it was interesting 'cause it spoke on even all of what and more what we talked about. Lowell Mason for those that don't know, and you can speak to this more directly, ⁓ he was a music director. He was in Boston and then in New York City. And the famous example for this article, he became a music director in New York City eighteen fifty-three. And he made two decisions right away that shocked people and irritated, I'm sure, a few. First, when he became the music director, he reportedly dismissed all of the professional singers and instrumentalists who had been being basically paid to lead the congregation in singing, retaining only the organist.

speaker-2: Which was very common in those days for the larger churches only to have professional musicians.

speaker-1: Yeah. And that he did he was against the grain in doing that. And then secondly, he started his singing school, which was the intention of okay, we're gonna we're we're going to do this. We as a church were going to lead in music and over time totally transformed what we now know of in our churches generally and broadly in congregational singing and everything else. is really goes back to that, this understanding, no, this is a if we're gonna worship this is the church that should be worshiping together.

speaker-2: collective and he was about sixty years old when he did that. I'm about seventy, so I'm just a little later than he is. But but yes, absolutely. By by the way, we have more hymns in our church hymnal written by Lowell Mason than any other American hymn writer. He was so influential in church music. ⁓ So influential in music in in the nineteenth century. ⁓ just amazing.

speaker-1: By the way. Which is where we're at, I would say. ⁓ and I just wanna think just think with me, our our churches are going back towards the level of professional singers, it would seem. More and more common it would have is to have someone up on the platform, a group of people perhaps with microphones singing and then you can join if you choose to do so, versus the simplicity of what Mason and others were doing of just having a song leader going to we're gonna sing this together and then the congregation is the one that is singing back. And I think part of that reason is we just don't have a generation of people that know music.

speaker-2: Yeah, I mentioned this in a service recently. We have a remarkable musical ability in our congregation. When you hear our congregation sing, we sing in harmony, we sing out well. I'm not saying we're the best in the world, but we're better than almost everybody else. And it's because we have people in our church that understand enough about music that they can sing parts. Most churches do not have that. Mu I I I can't tell you how many ⁓ texts and emails I get from friends or people that I don't even know who listen to our our live streams and say the same thing. Are they just listening to the choir? No, you're listening to the whole congregation. Our congregation sings in parts. That is a that is ⁓ the exception, not the rule.

speaker-1: Which is amazing for where we are. But we can't rest on our laurels. ⁓ yes. We we we have to move this forward. And there's a scriptural basis for this. There's a reason for this. There's a passion. And it's you know, we could look at Lowell Mason. I I find history to be cool. I I guess I grew up in New England, so I don't claim New York City, but Lowell Mason was in Boston for a time, so I I guess

speaker-2: And you know, I drove up to Boston just to find out some information on his life and nobody up in Massachusetts knew who he was. they didn't have no idea.

speaker-1: But scripture gives us example. Scripture, even in this article, they referenced how First Corinthians twenty five, there are two hundred and eighty-eight men instructed in the songs of the Lord, and there was an intentionality to it. We're going to be training our people. And so this is a discipleship this is a disciple making a ⁓ academy. This is not just a music academy, this is a disciple making academy. And a lot of that conversation, Pastor Chris and Pastor Fisher, Pastor Mark Herbster, Dr. Carl Herbster, ⁓ have had it had it meetings about this for months even before our announcement, driving towards that philosophy of this is going to be a discipling academy. So yeah, we're training music, but we're not doing a classical education, you know, classical music. This is to train young people for music in discipleship. And you've spoken to that even regularly about being disciple focused when it comes to this particular academy. Why is that? What's the importance of that?

speaker-0: Well, I think ⁓ p in one sense I want to think about the kingdom of God and the church ⁓ in a little bit less of a parochial way. I want to think about the kingdom of God as what's at stake here is God's glory, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And I should rejoice from Greenville, South Carolina, when I know that my Lord and Savior is being glorified with Christ honoring majestic music in Arizona and I and in Canada and across the country and so my heart is to see us make young disciples that have a solid music ⁓ understanding but that understand what Christ honoring majestic music is and ⁓ not yes for our church But my heart would be twenty years from today to say, you know, we have young people all across the country, and there's a resurgence in this country of majestic Christ sounding music in our churches. And so you say, well, that's maybe a little bit too big of an ambition. Well, that's that's what my heart is. My heart is to see us make disciples, send them out across the country ⁓ for the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Yeah.

speaker-1: And this is a choice that we've had to make. even that's why for those that are watching or listening, you know, I've got the music pastor and the administrative pastor here. And we've made a choice to say, you know, there are many things that as a church we can we can do. We we can do a lot of things. We can have a lot of fun. We can do a lot of parties, we can have a lot of get togethers and fellowships and showers or whatever you may think is important for you to do that scratches whatever itch you may have. We have decided That through prayer and study of scripture, we're going to place our eggs in discipleship baskets. Amen. And we believe that a music academy is a discipleship basket. And so the resources of the church are going to be deployed in those baskets instead of ⁓ you know, a let's let's have a gift card raffle or a party with our Sunday school class. No, we want discipleship to drive the force of where we're

speaker-2: And one thing you have to think of, what is the alternative? What is the alternative? If we don't educate our kids in something biblical, the world will pop right in and fill that void and that's what's been going on. And we've got to reverse that even for our own families' sakes.

speaker-1: Yes.

speaker-0: Well in that text it says that that we would grow in the knowledge of God so that we could approve what is best. When you when you give your life and you give your heart fully ⁓ to the scriptures and and you're passionate about the scriptures teach about the church, it drives you to be passionate. about something more than recreation. It drives you to be passionate, to do what is best for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And and to as you put it, we're putting our eggs into the discipleship basket. And where does that where does that drive come from? What what that burns within you? I I I could in the time I've worked with you, that burns within you. You want to drive us higher up into things that are important to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And you find yourself frustrated when we're when we're putting a lot of time and effort into things that aren't ⁓ important to our Lord. And ⁓ I think it's the knowledge of the scriptures. It's being filled. It's letting the knowledge of the scriptures drive our priorities and drive our ambition. And ⁓ I believe this music academy is a disciple making ministry. And so And and we want to do this in other areas of our church too. We want to challenge ourselves in every area.

speaker-1: In every area. Yeah, there was a song when I was ⁓ s speaking of music. There was a s music does stay with you by the way, which is another reason why this we haven't even touched on but we're No, they don't. That's true. When I was a teenager at the Wilds there was a song that they had for their th theme song for whatever week we were at that had just a question and it was, is it gonna burn? And the question was, w what you build in this life, is it gonna burn? Right. And that's you know, we could build a crowd having a party. We could. Sure. But is that gonna burn? And I would say the answer is yes. Now

speaker-2: Sure.

speaker-1: I can invest in let's just throw out a number, five little boys and girls who are trained and stay with us in a music academy. I'd much rather invest in five s precious souls that will worship their God with with glory and honor and and true holiness than five hundred par ch boys and girls getting together for a party. That's a much better investment, agreed. And I I I think that's where we're saying as a congregation and a and a leadership staff, it's why it's kinda fun to have a music guy and a administrative pastor. A music guy, tell us about music. Administrative pastor, help us make sure that we're doing this in a way that has a point to that focus even in our budgets. Which is really exciting. Really exciting. You've been praying about this, Pastor Fisher though, for a long time.

speaker-2: Fifteen twenty years. Yes. I'm I'm excited. Very excited. And I hope our parents will look into this very carefully. And please don't let money detract you. I think we've got a a a very feasible plan that that's gonna save people money and and I'm hearing that from most everybody who comes in, but ⁓ but ⁓ I I'm sure that we have people who will help. I know we have people that will help ⁓ Don't let money be the thing that keeps you from getting your children involved. ⁓ come and talk to us. Right. Let us let us see how we can work this out. 'Cause I I I just think all of our children should have advantage of this, taking advantage of this.

speaker-1: Right.

speaker-0: I had lunch ⁓ today with ⁓ Alan and Alicia Wetterts and we spoke about of course the music academy. And ⁓ one of the things we talked about at lunch is I said, you know, at the core of this academy, we talked about is really the four and five-year-old beginning keyboard. That's at the core of the academy. And so will we try to be a blessing to people and offer students lessons that maybe already have a teacher? We don't really want to pull students away from their teacher. We're not trying to do that. But what we'd like to do is say if we start with four and five year olds, could we through the church in a disciple-making ministry guide and facilitate the child and the parent from four and five year olds until college in their music education. And that's a ministry that we want to have. Not that we're not going to try to do some adult things if we can be a blessing. Not that if a student loses his piano teacher that we wouldn't try to fill in. Well we're not really trying to take students away from their piano teachers. We're not trying to recruit students that are currently in a program. The heart of this ministry is four and five year olds each year. another year of four and five year olds coming in to begin beginning keyboard, beginning music theory, and for the next ten, fifteen years for us to help guide the parents and the family all the way till college in their music education.

speaker-1: And if you're watching or listening to this, our registration for the music academy is gonna open on July one. And ⁓ you'll be able to hear more about that by visiting the website at that time. ⁓ this past Sunday we already mentioned there was that open house, and we're thankful for those that were there. Our new director, Alicia Wetters, was with us on that Sunday and there's been other conversations. Before we go, I wanna kind of speak to that. We began this conversation with our church really, really far ahead of the launch date. And ⁓ I think for some when we did that it was, whoa, you know, wh why are you telling us about this a year in advance of the launch? Now why do we do we made that was a choice that that the unusual I would say. Why did we choose to do that? Well, because we wanted you to have we wanted you to hear the heart and pray with us and We've seen their response. Maybe you could speak to that response and you could speak of the response because we've actually we've actually heard that from many people that have said, Yeah, we we catch the vision. We're here in the heart. We're praying.

speaker-2: Yeah, I I mean I haven't got whole lot to add. I I I've talked with so many people who are just very, very excited. They they are starting to catch the vision. And I think as we have ⁓ as people I I think even more when people see some results, when we see what the children are doing and what they're learning, I think we're gonna have more people want to come and take part and and that's perfectly understandable and we look forward to that. Right.

speaker-0: Right. Well, go God has called the parents to be the primary disciplers and disciple makers of their children and our heart is that we want to be an extension of the parents under the parents' authority, helping them in this area of music. And I've talked to several families that said, Wow, I wish you would have had this ten years ago and and so we we've just said, Well, we're we're gonna do what we can, we're gonna start now and and pray for the next generation.

speaker-1: Well before we go, there's three things I want us to think about. One, if you do have a child or you're interested at all in registration, be sure to watch that launch date on July first and begin registering. We'd love to have you be a part of this new ministry initiative. If you say, Well, this is beyond I don't have any kids at home, I don't have any desire, well, you could certainly number two be praying for this. We we want you to be praying for this and and and understand the vision. And number three, you might be saying, I don't have any kids in the home. But I catch the vision and God has blessed me in a way that I wanna help some other parent that Pastor Chris was talking about that may not be able to to get there and Pastor Fisher mentioned as well. And ⁓ certainly we we could use that. We were establishing scholarship fronts to that end. ⁓ we wanna be able to make sure that finances are not a hindrance to make sure that these kids are doing it. And so if you can help us get there, certainly we'd love to hear from you in that regard as well. But thank you so much for listening, watching, however it may be. I hope that you've incur been encouraged and are will be joining us in this new ministry initiative here at Faith Baptist Church in Taylor, South Carolina. the music academy here. I hope you're interested in learning more. If you are, you can come and ⁓ call us, listen to more of what we're about to say. Thank you again for joining us today.

speaker-0: Thank you for joining us today. For more information about Faith Baptist Church, visit us at www.tailors.org. ⁓

speaker-1: Wc